(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an air cleaner mounted to a motor vehicle, and more particularly, to one that effectively drains, well ventilated and protects the check value so as to prevent difficult starting of the engine due to excessive water vapor and oil vapor.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
For any motor vehicle, a motorcycle or an all terrain vehicle (ATV) operates on introducing the fresh air from the ambient to mix up with the fuel, the admixture is imported into the engine to be ignited and exploded to produce power to further push pistons to engage in reciprocal motion, which in turn is transmitted through the belt to drive the gearbox for the vehicle to advance. As the engine keeps running by depending on the introduction of proper amount of air into the engine, the air carries at the same time water vapor, foreign matters and dust, which when admitted into the engine will damage the engine and air inlet mechanical parts. Furthermore, excessive amount of air vapor will cause difficult start of the engine. To avoid the ingress of air vapor, foreign matters and dust from damaging the engine and air inlet mechanism, an air cleaner is provided in front of the carburetor of the air inlet mechanism in case of a conventional engine to the vehicle or in front of the throttle valve in case of an injection engine to make sure that only the clean air is admitted to maintain the engine in normal working condition.
As illustrated in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, an air cleaner 1 of the prior art is comprised of an upper cap 11, an in-flow chamber 111 defined by the upper cap 11, a filter element 12, a lower cap 13 and a outflow chamber 131 defined by the lower cap 13. Wherein, an air intake passage 14 is disposed into the inflow chamber 111; the filter element 12 usually relates to a filtration cotton; an air outtake passage 14 connected to the carburetor or the throttle valve (not illustrated) is provided to the outflow chamber; a drainage 16 is disposed at where below the outflow chamber 131; the drainage 16 is provided with a pipe 161 extending into where below the body of the vehicle; a jacket 162 provided at the outlet of the pipe 161 to block the pipe 161 and is secured to the drainage 16 by means of a clamping device 163.
Once the engine is running, a large volume of air enters through the air intake passage 14 into the inflow chamber 111 and is filtered into clean air by the filter element 12 before being admitted to the outflow chamber, and then into the carburetor or the throttle valve via the outtake passage 15. The air is mixed with fuel at a proper ratio to form the admixture for combustion in the cylinder to generate power for keeping the engine running. However, the ambient air usually carries water vapor, foreign matters and dust. Foreign matters and dust may pass through the filter element while the water vapor may condense into water drops to log inside the outflow chamber 131. When the water logging is observed in the pipe, the jacket 162 is removed to drain out the water. Nonetheless, the drainage mechanism is provided with only the drain function, it takes constant attention by the user to watch for any water logging inside the air cleaner for drainage in time. Excessive logging of air vapor and fuel vapor will kill the engine particularly when riding or driving for a long distance on a sand beach or a creek bed, and it is very difficult to get the engine to start again.